2. Seeing vs Looking
• Easy access to great paintings today
– Greeting cards
– Internet
• Seeing involves opening your eyes
• Looking involves opening your mind and
taxing your intellect
• Look, don’t just see !
3. Six guidelines for looking at paintings
• Subject – Sometimes historical or mythological figures
• Techniques – Use of oil paints, frescos
• Symbolism – Many paintings use language of symbolism
and allegory that was understood by the artists and
audiences of the time
• Space and light – Artists mastery in creating space and
light
• Historical Style – Each historical period had a style –
Renaissance to Modern times
• Personal Interpretation – What you see with your
knowledge of history, symbolism and techniques
4. Bacchus and Ariadne
Subject
Each painting has specific subject with meaningful message
Subjects could be mythological figures
8. What creates a masterpiece
• Virtuosity – Skills + knowledge and
imagination
• Innovation – Rewriting the existing rules –
Giotto and Picasso
• Patronage – Catholic church and Royal coursts
• Artistic vision – Michelangelo’s ceiling
9. Frescoes
• Fresco is a technique of
mural painting
• Executed upon freshly laid
lime plaster
• Water is used as vehicle for
the pigment
• With setting of the
plaster, painting becomes
part of the wall
10.
11. The annunciation
• By Guido de Pietro at the Fra Angelico Altarpiece
• Things to look for
– A closed garden – symbolizing Mary’s purity
– Classical architecture – slender corinthian columns
– Archangel Gabriel – Youthful, energetic
– Halo around Mary
– Handmaiden of God – verses upside down (so God
could read them)
– Gothic style of Mary’s chair
– Holy spirit – dove as the symbol
13. The adoration of the Magi
• Painted at the Arena chapel c. 1304-1306 by
Giotto de Bondone (1267-1337)
• Things to look for
– People’s position and character – The country lad
in ill-fitting clothes
– Kneeling king Caspar – sign of humility
– Mountainous scenery
– Shooting star – Giotto had seen a comet
16. The Deposition
• By Roger van der Weyden
• Look for
– The similarities in posture of Mary (with blue robe)
and Christ
– The plain clothes on the left and royal clothes on the
right offset one less person on the right
– Bracketing by people on the side focuses attention on
Christ and Mary
– The skull symbolises Adam (Christ was crucified at
spot where Adam was buried, one signifying fall and
the other the rise)
17.
18. A dance to the music of time
• Painting by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
• Four allegorical figures:
Pleasure, wealth, industry and poverty
• Look for
– Circular motion of dance in a triangle
– Permanence and transcience – Statue of two
faced Janus with flowers
– Poverty and wealth holding hands
19.
20. The oath of the Horatii
• By Jacques Louis David (1748-1825)
• War between Roman Horatii and Alba Coratii
• Theme of heroism and civic virtue, painted before
the French revolution
• Look for
– Strong profiles of soldiers, gentle curves of the sisters
– Child pushing grandmothers hand to look at the
swords
– Austere columns signifying masculinity and military
21.
22. The experiment with the air pump
• By Joseph Wright
• Things to look for
– The experiment: Will the bird survive if oxygen is pumped
out – in a home setting – typical of 18th century
– The lovers: not attentive to the experiment
– The scientist: looks of a magician
– The person with the clock: Timing the experiment
– The girls reassured by their father
– The boy – not sure if the cage should be lowered/needed
– The philosopher – pondering the consequences
– The moon: Sign of enlightenment
23.
24. The Hay Wain
• By John Constable
• Quintessential English painting, painted in
Suffolk, green countryside
• Things to look for
– Washerwoman in front of cottage
– Dog drawing attention
– Cooling the horses
– Clouds and the pattern of light
25.
26. The awakening conscience
• By William Holman Hunt
• Look for
– Depiction of luxurious items in the girls house
– Nostalgic song – Oft in the silly night – about a
woman reflecting on her childhood innocence
– Cat and bird – Reflecting that salvation is possible
for the woman
– Discarded glove – The woman’s fate if she does
not mend her ways
27.
28. The vanities of life
• By Harmen SteenWyck
• Shell represents wealth
• Chronometer represents finite time, the
sword (a symbol of power) reminds power is
powerless before death
• Reminded of vanities of love (shawm) and
knowledge (book)
• Extinguished lamp depicts life may end
anytime
29. Impressionist paintings
• No story to tell or moral
to communicate
– Common ordinary
subject matter
• Had pre-mixed colors in
metal tubes, earlier
artist had to mix the
colors himself
• Renoir – Girl with a hoop
30.
31. Autumn effect at Argentuil
• By Claude Monet
• Look for
– Rainbow palette
– Bold brushstrokes at the bottom, finer with
distance
– Reflected images
– Rippling of the wind on the right
32.
33. The bedroom at Arles
• By Vincent Van Gogh, 1888
• Color is everything, can suggest emotion
regardless of the subject
• Unsophisticated and authentic
• Look for
– Thick brushstrokes
– Violet walls in harmony with green windows and
contrast with yellow beds/chairs
– Portraits of Van Gogh and his sister on the wall
34.
35. Le Grande Jatte
• By Georges Seurat
• Technique of divisionism – instead of mixing
colors, put them separately and let the eye
mix it
• Look for
– Boating on the Seine and Woman fishing
– Mixing of the classes
– Perspective scheme – Woman with umbrella
larger – supposed to be seen at 45 degrees
36.
37. A bar at the Folies-Bergere
• By Eduardo Manet
• Set in a Paris night club
• Look for
– Mirror
– Inaccurate reflections depicting difference in time
between subject and reflection
– Difference in drinks (champagne and beer)
depicting different classes of society
39. Guernica
• Painted during Spanish civil war
• Look out for
– Bull depicting brutality
– Woman with dead child
– Severed head
– Horse
– Woman with hands up raised to protect from
bombs
